You all know I love a good party theme, right? Well, my oldest just hit the halfway mark on childhood (*sniff, sniff*) and he was set on the theme: Minecraft. I couldn’t bear the thought of zombie kids playing videos games for two hours straight, so we modified and combined two things he loves: Minecraft and Nerf guns.
We set up inside a church gym and asked the guests to bring their battle gear, and it basically ran itself.
Well, sort of.
My husband is the master party-executer. I love to plan and then take a backseat when the kiddos roll in. Dennis crafted these awesome boxes to look like all things Minecraft: a Creeper, some Skeletons, and TNT. Those, along with a cardboard Creeper head, were the hit of the party! They were barriers to hide behind, obstacles to hit, and hats.
Dennis also planned some awesome games—a partner nerf gun obstacle course, nerf gun dodgeball, take-turns-running-across-the-gym-being-shot-at, and an all-out free-for-all nerf war. He piped Jack’s favorite Minecraft parody songs, too.
I’ll admit, my one contribution to the party games was Pin the Tail on Pig. It looked great on Pinterest and even looked good on the wall. This was the moment I discovered that PtT games are not for nine-year-olds. It didn’t take any of them long to figure out how to feel their way to the tail section and just top each other’s tails. Oh well. We’ll save PtT for the littles.
I printed some word searches, but I don’t think anybody noticed. Except for the girls, who were looking for Nerf-battle alternatives. They had no interest in going head-to-head with the third-grade boy army. Two of them spent the afternoon sorting and stocking a Nerf arsenal and the other two set up shop in the ladies’ room, doing target practice over the stalls.
The entire Minecraft-Nerf battle was oddly calm and organized, though they were clearly having fun!
My primary contributions:
The Invitations
Using the free MineCrafter font and a Goggle image, I made these fun invites.
The Cake
I borrowed inspiration from another mommy blogger and added my own time and resolve to come up with the cake:
The Creeper Snack Baskets (a.k.a. goodie bags + snacks!)
We put a little twist on goodie bags: we handed them out as the kids arrived. We filled them with Minecraft building elements, a.k.a. snacks. I created printables (see below) using more Pinterest inspiration, and spent an afternoon with the boys counting out items and stapling them in small clear candy bags. Each child received sticks (pretzels), snowballs (mini-marshmallows), slime (green jello), dirt (brownie), fish (goldfish), TNT (wrapped twizzlers), carrots (carrots), emeralds (green grapes), redstone (tomatoes), iron (Hershey’s nugget), gold (popcorn), melon (melon candy), and Potion of Healing (water). We also equipped them with battle glasses, a torch (glow stick), extra nerf ammo, some Minecraft jokes, and a mini coloring book. The rations were a hit!
Jack had a blast with his buddies and the most fun adults got in on the action, too!
Other than the time-intensive goodie baskets and answering Minecraft-cult riddles about “how there could possibly be Creepers and Skeletons in the Nether Portal,” this party was fairly easy to put together!
And we got some of the best action shots!
It’s safe to say, in the END, there will NETHER be another party like this one.
(scroll down for printables)
Find all my Minecraft party inspiration on my Minecraft party board (and discover that most of my party ideas are not mine!)
Nobody throws parties like Amy throws parties! Over and above, my friend. Sweet times of inspiration–you’re the best!
I don’t mind being know for cake hahahahahaha. Thanks, friend!
So fun! K loves her safety glasses ?
lol, I’m so glad 🙂 Jack tried wearing his to school today, forgetting they don’t actually help him see.
Wow! You are parents of the year!
awww thanks! we had a blast!